


What Do P-Ratings (Psi-Ratings) Mean? (Part 2)

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [75]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Bloodhounds (Babylon 5), Canon Compliant, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Cops, Psi Corps, Telepath culture, What do P-ratings mean?, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 00:30:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: P-ratings for n00bs, with a focus on P5 through P11.The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!Part 1 ishere.Part 3 ishere.





	What Do P-Ratings (Psi-Ratings) Mean? (Part 2)

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com.

From Part 1 (Latent through P5):

Everyone's aware of Psi Cops (all of whom are P12s, though not all P12s are Psi Cops). Example: Al Bester (P12). Most people are also aware of commercial telepaths, who are on the weaker end of the spectrum. Examples: Talia Winters (P5) and Lyta Alexander (also a P5, before the Vorlon incident). But what do these numbers really _mean?_

P-ratings are a measurement of "telepathic strength," though it's a little more complicated than that. (It always is, right?)

  * P-ratings range from 1-12 (with super rare exceptions, for example Kevin Vacit (P13), and Lyta Alexander after the Vorlon incident (P20? P-who-the-heck-knows?).


  * Latent telepaths (for example Susan Ivanova) are not rated - they are legally normals. There is no "P0."


  * P-ratings are not linear - the difference between a P11 and P12 in strength is much larger than between a P1 and a P2, and _qualitatively_ , the experiences between ratings differ as well (see below). On occasion, people fall between ratings (having some traits of the higher rating and some of the lower), and are rated in between. Bester's lover Carolyn was rated P11/P12.


  * P-ratings rarely change. On occasion, however, young people will develop telepathy in stages, for example developing to P2 level and then later developing to P4 level. Low level telepaths from telepath families (such as [Lyta's mom](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10804515)) are therefore monitored by the Corps for a period of time, in case they develop again. Low-level telepaths from normal families may be monitored as well, depending on Corps' resources.


  * P-ratings are far from the whole story on telepathic ability. One's training, one's skill, and one's life experience is in many instances at least as important, if not more so, than one's P-rating in determining what one is capable of doing.


  * This isn't a simple game of "higher numbers beat lower numbers." If telepathy were like gravity, P-rating would be like one's "mass," and the dent in "telepathic space time" one makes. That has little to do with skill, intelligence, instinct, combat ability, common sense, and so on. Even in cases of actual psi combat it's not that simple, because there's a thousand ways a more skillful person can outwit a less skillful person. (Stephen Walters, aka The Black Fox, was the head of the Underground for a generation, and he was only a P8. He was widely (and inaccurately) believed in the Corps to have been a rogue Psi Cop, but he was actually a P8. Also, after the Telepath War, when most experienced Psi Cops were in prison or dead, and EABI sent fresh-out-of-school P12 _kids_ after Bester, this ended really badly for all of those kids.)



Now, with that aside, what do these ratings really _mean?_

  * Latents are normals who can feel telepaths.


  * P1s and P2s are not full telepaths. Telepathic impressions are non-specific and inconsistent. They are are legally telepaths, but not in the Corps.


  * P3s and P4s are full telepaths (above the Corps cut-off, anyway), but low end. Also known as "surface thought telepaths" because their ability to actively "scan" people for information is limited or non-existent (P4s may have some limited ability to "scan," while P3s do not).


  * P5: full telepath, can actively "scan" with consistency and specificity.


  * P5 through P9: Most telepaths in the Corps are in this wide band. Telepaths in this range exhibit more of a difference in telepathic strength than qualitative differences in telepathic ability itself. Telepaths in this range can serve in any job in the Corps other than those that require the specialized skills or abilities of the highest rated P-ratings. Telepaths in this range may work for normals or in the Corps itself: they may work in the Business Division, for the courts, or in any number of professional or administrative positions in the Corps. In this wide band, one's career path is usually determined by factors other than P-rating, including but not limited to skills, interest, and connections in the Corps.



        While P5s are not able to project telepathic illusions (either to normals or to other telepaths), telepaths in the upper part of this band may have a limited ability to do so, at least for short periods of time (e.g. seconds or minutes). It's harder to successfully 'cast a telepathic illusion to an alien mind than to a human one (even a few seconds would be quite a strain), but they might be able to hold such an illusion to a human for several minutes. (The strain of successfully 'casting a telepathic illusion might cause a headache.) YMMV - some people can do it better than others. Though normals and weaker telepaths might be fooled, stronger telepaths would have no problem seeing through the illusion.

  * P10s and P11s: Telepaths in this range are rare. Before Johnston became director of the Corps in 2203, telepaths in this range often found high-placed jobs in the Corps, such as in the upper levels of administration. Other jobs open to telepaths in this range include search and rescue, and (for those who make the cut) special forces (also known as "bloodhounds"). **It is rare for telepaths in this range to work in the commercial or court sector** \- it's seen as somewhat "beneath" telepaths of this range to work for normals (this probably includes P9s also), so they usually find themselves working for the Corps in some way or another.



        Jason Ironheart was a P10, and he was an instructor in the Corps. **It is not true that all instructors are high-rated** \- most of Bester's teachers when he was a child were not that strong. Cadre Prime instructors all come from Cadre Prime - in those days, high-rated graduates went onto top positions in administration, became Psi Corps, etc., and those chosen to be instructors were from the pool of lower-rated graduates (who applied - obviously, most went on to do other things).

        It's rare (but not impossible) for instructors in the Business Division or Court Division to be very high-rated. There is a bit of canon error in _Mind War_ \- the text says, "His job is to work with telepaths level P5 through P10. Jamming, long-range scanning, that sort of thing." **There is no way a P5 like Talia could do that sort of thing, or would ever be in classes to learn it.**

        Those are P10 and up specialized skills - Talia cannot sense people long distance. She can't work help in search and recover, as established in _And the Sky Full of Stars_ (she's a P5, requires proximity, isn't trained in search and recover), and she can't sense people long distance without line of sight (as established in _A Race Through Dark Places_ , where she drops her telepathic walls and gets nothing but static, but Bester can hear the people he's searching for). "Long range scanning"? Oh no. And by "jamming," they mean something specific to psi combat, and there is again no reason a P5 would ever be in such classes (or even able to do this at all - this is why she's only a P5!). I'm not saying she couldn't have a P10 instructor - Ironheart still worked for the Corps, not directly for normals. I'm saying that Talia wouldn't be trained in psi combat or specialized, upper-level skills, and her instructors would instead be training her in the skills she would need in the Business Division (or the courts, or the Political Bureau, or any other job working directly for normals - all jobs she actually had). She's not a bloodhound or Psi Cop.

        Also, it would be really strange for P5s and P10s to be in the same class, after age 12. They would be placed in entirely different tracks. And it's not likely she would talk about the class in terms of P-ratings at all - she'd say "he was my instructor in the Business Division" or "he was my instructor when I was training to work in the courts" or "he was my instructor when I was studying to be a profiler in MetaPol" (one of Lyta's jobs, also as a P5). And higher rated telepaths would say something like, "he was my instructor in bloodhound training" or "he was my instructor in Psi Cop training," etc.

        If she was explaining this to normals, she might specify what P-ratings students in a Business Division class are likely to have, but again... this is off.

        (Maybe Jason Ironheart never made the cut for the bloodhounds, and ended up teaching basic psi combat and self-defense to lower rated telepaths - one of those optional classes students could take if they wanted. "This will help you if you find yourself in a fight with someone who's not too strong and not too skilled. It's better than nothing.")

**Author's Note:**

> Or, to be cynical, she was in his class because they were in a sexual relationship. Does canon actually specify that he was her instructor _before_ they got involved?


End file.
